These icons are bigger than MacBook’s display (1280 x 800 pixels)

Jul 19, 2012 12:52 GMT  ·  By

Apple has performed a series of changes to its Mac App store, specifically related to the size of the icons that developers are required to provide for their applications.

According to one developer, Daniel Jalkut, the official application portal now requires the submission of an icon that is at least of 1024 x 1024 pixels in size.

For those who want to make an idea of the size of that icon, we should mention that it is bigger than MacBook's display of 1280 x 800 pixels.

Clearly, it is bigger than the standard resolution of the iPhone an iPad as well, but it is required for each and every new submission to the Mac App Store.

While Apple did not offer specific info on why this requirement was put in place, chances are that it would have something to do with the Retina display that Apple is currently pushing to more of its products.

Rumor has it that Apple might have in plan the release of Macs that feature the Retina display, following the launch of MacBook Pro machines that use it.

The Mac App Store already uses such icons in various places, and they are expected to become mandatory all around, since the latest displays for Apple’s computers pack an increased number of pixels.

On issue that emerges from the inclusion of these huge icons in the package is the fact that they require more space to store on the user’s hard disk.

As tuaw notes, these icons also require more memory when loaded, which could become an issue on less powerful machines.

Even on cutting-edge computers, the loading of a wide range of such icons at a time could result in a lot of memory being eaten up, which could become an issue as well.

Most probably, Apple will provide some specific info on what determined it to impose this requirement, so stay tuned for more on the matter.